1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printing presses and, particularly, offset printing presses. The printing unit of such printing presses includes a plate cylinder, a rubber blanket cylinder, an impression cylinder, an inking unit and a damping unit. The inking unit and damping unit include, respectively, inking rollers and damping solution applicator rollers. Such printing presses, also, include washing apparatus that, when in the wash mode position, is brought into engagement with the rubber blanket cylinder by control apparatus.
2. Background Information
Printing presses in which the present invention may be employed are well known. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/482,260, which is now allowed and which will issue as U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,820 on Apr. 30, 1991, discloses one such printing press.
It is known to use a washing apparatus for the cleaning of rollers and/or cylinders of offset printing presses. According to one known design, a washing apparatus is brought into engagement with the blanket cylinder to clean the blanket cylinder. A separate impression cylinder washing apparatus is provided in order to clean the impression cylinder. The plate cylinder is cleaned by the inking rollers. The cleaning of the damping unit is possible through the intermediary of the inking rollers, provided that a connection can be established between the inking unit and the damping unit by means of an intermediate roller.
The known designs have the disadvantage that the various apparatus entail high costs of manufacture and/or operation and also require a large amount of space. Furthermore, a correspondingly large amount of time is required in order to operate the various apparatus.